Word Origin & History

monsoon "trade wind of the Indian Ocean," 1584, from Du. monssoen, from Port. monçao, from Ar. mawsim "appropriate season" (for a voyage, pilgrimage, etc.), from wasama "he marked." When it blows from the southwest (April through October) it brings heavy rain, hence "the rainy season" (1747).

Example Sentences for monsoon

Numerous combinations of equatorial, trade and monsoon rainfalls are found, often creating great complexity.

Himachal has been converted into fairyland by the monsoon rains.

The influence of the monsoon is greatly moderated before it reaches this region, and the rains sometimes fail altogether.

But at last there comes the monsoon and the rains--and then the Resurrection Morning.

In the pelting rain of a Burmese monsoon the so-called road soon became a mere quagmire.

There has been a monsoon, and a want of coals, and a burst boiler, and every sort of excuse.

On 28th May they had something like a foretaste of the breaking of the monsoon, though happily that event did not yet take place.

There was a failure in the Indian monsoon, and South American crops were small.

If a small line could be got across from ship to ship, the end of it would be made fast to a coir hawser in the Monsoon.